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GWJ Conference Call Episode 210

by Jon Cole in Games574 days ago

Lara is back from about a month of absence to join Shawn and Julian for this week’s three-man Conference Call. Julian starts things off by telling the tale of introducing his wife to World of Warcraft, which is essentially giving her a first taste of hard drugs. Luckily, much of the early game has been highly accelerated due to the towering level cap, so she’s been able to get into the action quickly. Shawn briefly mentions his time with Medal of Honor, which he ultimately boils down to a slightly weak Modern Warfare clone. He goes on...

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GWJ Conference Call Episode 209

by Jon Cole in Games583 days ago

Returning guest Rob Zacny starts off the show with his thoughts on F1 2010. As an F1 enthusiast, he had low expectations for the game, though it ended up surprising him with a solid career mode and effective driver assists. In the more mainstream sphere is Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, which Shawn points out may have impressed the hardcore collective due to low expectations. The traversal and combat are both decidedly lacking, though it’s clear that the plot, storytelling, and characterization more than make up for the faults as far as he’s...

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GWJ Conference Call Episode 208

by Jon Cole in Games589 days ago

Max Schaefer of Runic Games joins the Conference Call this week, starting things off unsurprisingly with more Minecraft. With the game being no stranger to GWJ, conversation quickly turns to Hydrophobia. It’s been subject to quite a bit of scrutiny despite the hype generated at PAX, with poor voice acting, design, and platforming. On the polar opposite of XBLA, Cory and Shawn have a lot of good things to say about Comic Jumper. The humorous writing is highly praised in typical Twisted Pixel fashion while some of the combat gets a little bit...

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GWJ Conference Call Episode 207

by Jon Cole in Games596 days ago

Shawn Andrich is out this week, so Julian takes the reins of this week’s show. Minecraft remains an enduring topic on Gamers with Jobs (sorry, Jonathan!) and it seems like everyone can find something to enjoy in the ~$13 indie package. While the game isn’t nearly complete, the framework seems so solid that it keeps the negative comments at bay in hopes that the minor problems will be dashed eventually. Civilization V dominates the other half of the collective mindshare of the gaming community and the guys weigh in on some of their experiences....

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GWJ Conference Call Episode 206

by Jon Cole in Games603 days ago

Shawn Andrich and Sean Sands are joined by CastMedium’s own Jonathan Downin for this week’s show, opening things up with some discussion of Vindictus. The game takes a Guild Wars-esque approach in offering MMO-like hub towns/instanced gameplay zones and implants it into a hack-and-slash action game formula. The business model isn’t totally clear, but Shawn recommends people give this free game a go. Sean briefly gets into his time with the latest release of Plants vs Zombies and some of the reasons you might consider buying it...

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GWJ Conference Call Episode 205

by Jon Cole in Games610 days ago

Allen is back on the show this week and opens things up with some discussion of Dead Rising: Case Zero. Unlike Dead Rising, this one is set in a mundane town, which strikes Allen as boring with respect to Dead Rising’s character-rich shopping mall. Additionally, he says that the game doesn’t seem to change up the formula from the first game very much, which makes the sequel a “wait and see” for him. In other old-game-esque fashion, Shawn talks a little about his time with the Final Fantasy XIV beta, which he thought was completely...

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GWJ Conference Call Episode 204

by Jon Cole in Games618 days ago

Duke Nukem Forever talk appropriately opens up the GWJ PAX special, though nobody seems to be interested in it despite the widespread excitement. Bastion was a much bigger hit, with Shawn evangelizing the interesting narrative style and Julian shedding some light on some of the game’s more unique mechanics. On the other hand, the collective impressions of Little Big Planet 2 are split down the middle, with Elysium noting the well-implemented grappling hook but going as far as to name it his game of show. The fighting game renaissance continues...

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GWJ Conference Call Episode 203

by Jon Cole in Games625 days ago

The GWJ crew has been a little excited about Mafia II up until now, so the opening of the show is even more disappointing as a result. Everyone but Lara has been playing it and they all seem to agree that the gameplay is sorely lacking with respect to the style and cutscenes, resorting to repetitive shootouts and overly mundane tasks. Shawn steers the conversation towards the far more positive, sharing his impressions on the co-op campaign of Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. In the game’s five hours or so, he didn’t think it dipped...

GWJ Conference Call Episode 202

by Jon Cole in Games632 days ago

Gamers with Jobs returns to normal after their huge 200th episode bonanza and welcomes CastMedium’s own Jonathan Downin as well. They kick things off by talking about Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, which they were all quite impressed with. Conversation transitions to some general thoughts on $15 games on Xbox Live Arcade, namely that the quality of many recent games (especially Summer of Arcade offerings) more than deserves their increased price point. Julian and Jonathan dive into a couple iPad games, Kelti’s Oracle and Nova,...

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GWJ Conference Call Episode 201

by Jon Cole in Games639 days ago

This week’s Gamers with Jobs is essentially a continuation of last week’s 200th episode, starting off as usual with games the guys have been playing. It’ll come to no GWJ fan’s surprise that Rob has been playing League of Legends and the rest of the guys have been playing more Starcraft II, the latter of which the guys briefly hit on once again. The first new game the guys discuss is the Mafia 2 demo, which Sands praises for solid controls and a seemingly engaging story. Shawn also talks about how impressive the game looks...

Gamers with Jobs

GWJ Conference Call Episode 200

by Jon Cole in Games645 days ago

Shawn opens up the 200th show by giving a little bit of overview to the format, namely that the first half will be comprised of an interview with Ken Levine about Project Icarus and the second half will be taken from their live conference call at GenCon. Julian starts the interview off by asking why Irrational would revisit the Bioshock franchise, with Ken’s response that Bioshock Infinite would be almost completely different from Bioshock. He makes it clear that the connections between the two games are almost spiritual, with Julian pointing...

Gamers with Jobs

GWJ Conference Call Episode 199

by Jon Cole in Games653 days ago

The World of Warcraft speaking embargo drops on this episode of the Conference Call, starting things off with Cataclysm beta talk. It’s quickly established that this game is more of a sequel than an expansion, as far as new features and structure is concerned. Before too long, they hold back a little, saying that it’s likely they’ll be talking about WoW for months to come. Staying on the Blizzard train, the biggest game of the week is clearly Starcraft II. Julian brings up the well-worn topic of having a multiple Starcraft campaigns...

Gamers with Jobs

GWJ Conference Call Episode 198

by Jon Cole in Games659 days ago

Gamers with Jobs is back, Cory is hosting, and the Sands/Andrich duo are noticeably absent.  Limbo starts things off and Allen lays out his very positive impressions after a seemingly excessive two playthroughs.  The guys also discuss the atmospheric sound design and slightly disturbing art style before moving on. After briefly hitting on the ultra-cheap Doctor Who Adventures, Lara talks about her time with Dragon Quest 9, which clearly left a good impression on her.  Following up her review of DQ8 from the past, she feels that this iteration...

Gamers with Jobs

GWJ Conference Call Episode 197

by Jon Cole in Games668 days ago

At the top of the show, Allen and Shawn talk a bit about their time playing RUSE due to its free weekend on Steam.  Despite the game’s great gameplay and solid interface, the guys take issue with Ubisoft’s DRM and sadly can’t absolutely recommend it.  Deathspank is probably the biggest game to release this past week and the guys chime in with their thoughts.  While they seemed to enjoy the humor that Ron Gilbert probably helped contribute to the game as well as the unique camera perspective, some of the gameplay mechanics like...

Gamers with Jobs

GWJ Conference Call Episode 196

by Jon Cole in Games674 days ago

Andrich and Sands are out this week, so Cory leads this week’s Conference Call with Rabbit, Allen, and Lara in the wings.  After briefly hitting on Picross 3D and Starcraft 2, Julian talks about his latest “best iPad game yet”, Osmos HD.  Between the fantastic music and stylized graphics, he has a lot to appreciate on the surface level, but the best aspect seems to be the controls that seemed to be designed for a touch interface. This week’s topic is centered around the whole Blizzard Real ID debacle and what it shows about...

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    Episode 092 - PTW ahoy!
    Games, tech, and the usual, for the last time. Hello Podcast Thing Weekly.

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